"One thing that was perfectly clear to us when he came before the Treasury Select Committee was that he wasn't competent to run a bank. But I think these latest personal revelations are truly remarkable and they open a whole number of other different questions about the regulators and possibly about political interference."

The influence of the then Labour government is another issue.

Flowers was a party member and has now been suspended.

But it's the Co-op's reputation which has probably taken the biggest battering.

US hedge funds are helping it plug its financial holes and it has promised a "root and branch" review of its structures.